RUTH MORGAN

Percenda, 1995, from the portfolio 10x10: Ten Women/Ten Prints, Three color silkscreen on paper, 21 ¹¹⁄₁₆ x 21 ¹¹⁄₁₆ in.

Mills College Art Museum Collection, Museum Purchase, Mrs. John C. Sigourney [Mary Singleton], B.A. 1949, Fund, 1995.12.g

Ruth Morgan is a photographer who has focused primarily on photographing incarcerated individuals and Native American populations since the late 1970s. Through this photo, Morgan illustrates the strength of youth with an image of a young girl, taken for the portfolio entitled 10x10: Ten Women/Ten Prints, created for the Berkeley Art Center in 1995. The young woman stares straight into the lens with arms crossed in defiance, standing her ground in front of a chalkboard. She embodies the power of the young to persevere in the face of racism, sexism, and other types of prejudice that may be used against them. Morgan not only displays her subject as strong and independent through her stance but also through her surroundings in a classroom, where her mind is cultivated to fight against the systems that hold her in place while also educating her about the ways of the world.

Sydney Pearce